ANALYSIS OF TOBACCO GROWERS* ASSOCIATION 33 



season and to enable him to produce a crop the following year) unless 

 he paid his debts in full, and promptly. 



A factor of considerable significance was the effect of the high 

 prices for tobacco and other farm products during the war years in 

 improving the standards of living of the tobacco growers. The striv- 

 ing to maintain these standards increased the dissatisfaction with 

 the association because of its policy of advancing only part of the 

 value of the tobacco and because it failed to make returns to the 

 members which compared favorably with tobacco prices then pre- 

 vailing on the auction floor or obtained a few years previously. 



EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS 



Educational standards are generally relatively low among the 

 farmers of these three States. The rate of illiteracy is high. The 

 1920 census gives the percentages of illiteracy of rural native whites, 

 21 years and over, as 9.2 per cent in Virginia, 12.2 per cent in North 

 Carolina, and 10.1 per cent in South Carolina. The rate of illiteracy 

 for the colored rural people of 21 years and over was 34.1 and 34.7 

 per cent in Virginia and North Carolina, respectively, and 41.3 per 

 cent in South Carolina. 



The study of economic and social conditions of 1,014 North Caro- 

 lina farmers revealed the following facts (7, p. 6-7) : 



Over 31 per cent of the fathers and mothers in the landless families can 

 neither read nor write. 



The average cropper had attained a school status of only third grade. The 

 average negro had attained less than full first grade education. 



Over 65 per cent of all landless families surveyed take no papers or maga- 

 zines. Less than 7 per cent take daily papers. 



These conditions were found to be largely due to lax and ineffi- 

 cient school systems in the past. The attendance was poor. During 

 certain periods children of school age were kept at home to help 

 with the farm work. The country schools of Virginia, according to 

 the 1925-26 report of the State superintendent of public instruc- 

 tion (<5, p. 46-47), were only 60.8 per cent efficient. Only 15.4 per 

 cent of the rural boys and girls of 14 to 18 years of age were attend- 

 ing Virginia high schools in 1925-26. The schools of these States 

 have been greatly improved during more recent years. 



LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS 



The farming population of the South seems to have had little 

 or no experience in group action, especially of the cooperative- 

 business kind, until within recent years. Such general national fra- 

 ternal organizations as the Farmers' Union, the Farm Bureau Fed- 

 eration, and the National Grange have been in existence in Virginia 

 for some time, but have received little support from farmers and 

 have never proved very successful (-5, p. 18-20). Their activities 

 have been directed mainly toward legislation and education instead 

 of toward cooperative business organizations. Some of the best work 

 in this direction has been done by the Farm Bureau Federation. 

 There are, at present, several cooperative associations in these States, 

 but most of them are of comparatively recent origin — have started 



76534—29 3 



